Gloria Akuffo
The Minister-designate for Attorney General and Justice, Gloria Akuffo, Saturday promised to retrieve the GH¢51.2 million fraudulently paid by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to the party’s businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
“As I understand it, judgement has been entered for the refund of the money. Efforts to recover the money have been inundated with many applications. My understanding is that the execution process has been soiled with all these processes so when I get there I will study the file and see how quickly we can recover the money for the state,” she said.
The Supreme Court had ordered Woyome to refund the GH¢51.2 million to the state but he claims to have paid only GH¢4 million, spreading the full payment for about four years.
Ms Akuffo, who appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting, told the committee that the President Akufo-Addo-led government had decided to set up a Special Prosecutor’s Office to deal with corruption in public offices.
“We want to make corruption a first degree felony and no more a misdemeanor,” she posited.
She said with the setting up of the Office, corruption cases in the public sector would be swiftly dealt with, which would help to reduce the incidence of corruption in the system.
The proposed Independent Prosecutor‘s Office under the Akufo-Addo administration is intended to be one of the ways that will deal specifically with corruption in the public sector, the Attorney General-designate indicated.
Ms Akuffo said, “Corruption has become a worrisome problem… and has become a developmental issue. There have been a lot of calls for a solution to be found to it.
“It is true that by the Constitution the Attorney General has the power to prosecute criminal matters, but it also has the power to delegate that authority; and it is under that that the office will be set up with a specific remit to deal with public sector corruption.”
She said parliament needs to support the proposal by approving the proposed independent prosecutor to be appointed by the president.
That, she said, would engender impartiality and repose greater public confidence in the office.
According to Ms Gloria Akuffo, the independent prosecutor would be nominated by the president and crafted in such a manner that it would not fall foul of the Constitution.
She said it was not intended to be an avenue for government to hound its opponents.
Ms Akuffo said the general public could attach some confidence to the office of the independent prosecutor based on how it was structured, the mode of appointment and its security of tenure.
“These are some of the things that will give the public confidence that this is a truly independent person, particularly because it will have to go to parliament,” she averred.
The private legal practitioner and arbitrator, who at one time under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, held the same portfolio and was the first female Deputy Minister of the Greater Accra Region, was named by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier in the month to become his chief legal advisor.
President Akufo-Addo had described Ms Gloria Akuffo as having strong ethical approach to issues of law and social responsibility, and expressed his conviction that she would make a fine Attorney General.
Strike
State attorneys on strike would return to work on Monday, January 23, Ms Akuffo told the committee.
She said President Akufo-Addo had intervened in the impasse between the Association of State Attorneys and the government and had succeeded in persuading them to go back to work.
“I spoke with their national president and she assured me they will be reporting, God willing, on Monday,” she disclosed.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr